Four Years

Photo courtesy of Mariah Mae Films

Chris,

Happy four years of marriage to my best friend. Four years ago I could have never pictured what our lives would be like now. Through every trial, every heartache, every fight, you've made me laugh through it all. Together we've gone through a lot of pain in our short marriage together, but we're the perfect team, and you are the one I always want by my side through the good times and the bad. I'm so happy that we're months away from starting our family on earth. I know you'll be a great dad to the twins... you're already a master at the lame dad jokes. You're such a hard worker, so strong, so brave, and you treat me like a princess. I would say four years ago today was the best day of my life, but honestly, every day with you just gets better and better. I love you more than I can explain. You are my life. Happy anniversary baby!!

Kaylee

Thanks Mariah for these photos! You're amazing and I absolutely love these!

Valentines Weekend Book Club!

So I really want to start up my book club again but I've been horrible at giving myself time to read. Last year I kept complaining about having to read books for school so I couldn't do book club, but now I'm just working and I have plenty of time, but I spend it watching TV instead. So lame!

I picked a new book from the library to read and I'm very excited for it (I'll get to the title in a second) and it's main theme is about teenage romance (the greatest kind of romance there is). But this weekend I want all my readers to read or reread a love story in honor of Valentines Day and then leave me a comment or send me a tweet about their favorite love story!

The book I chose to read is Eleanor & Park .

I have heard many good things about this book but I have never read it before. Here's a brief look into what it's about, from Amazon:

Set over the course of one school year in 1986, this is the story of two star-crossed misfits—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. When Eleanor meets Park, you’ll remember your own first love—and just how hard it pulled you under.

One of my favorite Youtubers, Meghan Rienks, has said this is one of her favorite books and she seems to have a similar taste in books as I do so I trust her opinion, at least for myself. To each his own. Which is why I'm giving you the option of picking your own book and telling me all about it so I can have more books on my reading list (which is packed but always ready for more).

As always, (but it's been so long we all probably have forgotten) we are an official Book Club on GoodReads. You can find our club HERE and anyone is welcome. Remember, there is no commitment, no stress, and I'll try to put up a new book each month. But this month is different since we're already half way through it and you're picking your own. But please have fun with the one you pick and don't forget to tell me about it!! I always want book suggestions!

Remember to Tweet about your book with #DancingCowBookClub so everyone can hear about the book you're reading. As always, thank you for your participation and I hope you have fun reading!!

One Years Worth of Marriage Tips, Tricks, and Advice

It's my anniversary month! I wanted to put up this post closer to my anniversary, but this particular post has taken me months to create and it has been delayed. But it's still May, still my anniversary month, so here it is!

No, I did not document my first full year of marriage the way I probably should have. But I have worked hard in the past year to show my love for my husband and to build our relationship. We've been through trials, we've been through changes, things weren't always the way we thought they would be. But we learned how marriage works together and marriage has been the greatest blessing of my life. Note: Just because I wrote all these down doesn't mean I'm perfect and follow every last tip, I'm not perfect and still have things to work on.

(PS, there is a very good chance the pictures won't all show up, I apologize for that but I don't think I'm going to take the time to fix them if they end up not showing. I'm trying to get ones that work but just know that there's a possibility of a blank picture. I also apologize for any grammatical issues, but again, not going through and fixing them.) 

So, here is a years worth of marriage tips, tricks, and advice... 365 days worth... A lot... As in, the longest blog post of my life... yeah... you don't have to read it all in one sitting.

1. Don't forget the kisses everyday!! 
2. When you burn the food, laugh. 
3. "Oh money, where did you go? Maybe we should keep track..."
4. Changes happen... again and again and again and again.
5. I think even grownups need a time-out sometimes. 
6. "How dare you do this! I'm so mad at you! [Insert How I Met Your Mother Quote here]" Laughter ensues, argument over. 
7. "I want to do this." "And I want to do this." Always make decisions together.
8. .....
   
9. Relax and take a trip, get away from being an adult. 
10. "Aww man, we eat out too much I'm getting fat!" You put on the weight together, take it off together. Gym time together can be super fun! 
11. "Life's a dance you learn as you go!"
12. Balancing school, work, homework, and life in general is difficult, but always, always, ALWAYS make your spouse your main priority.
13. Sometimes sacrifices have to be made.
14. When you watch a couple enough on TV, sometimes you start acting like them, and there is nothing wrong with that. 
    
15. Date nights become fewer, but sometimes that makes them all the more special.
16. Your in-laws can be family too and you can learn to love them as much as your own family. 
17. Sometimes Little Caesars Pizza is the best "going out to eat" can offer. 
18. Just hold your spouse for a minute a day. Just hold them and let them know you'll always be there for them. 
19. ... 
    
20. Love is meant to make you feel happy and wonderful. Accept it. 
21. Stop looking for the negative, every day find another positive.
22. .... 
    
23. Have confidence in your spouse and they will return the favor.
24. Make a cake, celebrate!
25. How do two people use so many dishes???
26. "I don't want to clean." "Me neither." "Let's make a game out of it!!!"
27. "Love is never ending!" 
28. Act like a child sometimes. If it's real love, your spouse will allow it.
29. You don't have to be exactly the same and like all the same things all the time... that just sounds exhausting.
30. A Disney movie sing-along and some popcorn is an excellent date night.
31. Marrying a fisherman means fish for dinner. 
32. And marrying a man who can cook fish very well is a good idea... because I dislike cooking. So I'm so grateful Chris can do it and do it well. 
33. ... 
    
34. Sometimes you have to remind your spouse how sexy you can be. And slutty. But you're married so it's okay. 
35. "Don't worry, be happy!" 
36. Car rides can be the absolute funnest thing with your spouse! Sing-alongs, car games, and long talks. Best thing ever!
37. Take time to step out of your comfort zone and do something the other one likes. Don't hide in your shell.
38. My husband is a soccer player and he's obsessed with the sport. He can tell you almost all the players in the EPL, he always knows the most current stats and news. Sometimes it can be hard with him always looking up soccer news on his phone, but when I go to his soccer games I can see that it's all just for the love of the game and it's so incredible seeing how happy it makes him. I'm proud to support my husband in something he loves.
39. Cooking together, making messes together, all means having fun together.
40. Hold hands. Be an otter.
41. Make your spouse feel beautiful... or handsome, pretty, ravishing, etc.
42. Just because you're married doesn't mean basic manners go out the window. Say yours please's and thank you's.
43. Take care of your spouse, "for better or for worse, in sickness and in health." 
    
44. Remind your spouse why you love them. Never let them forget it.
45. RESPECT. It's not dead. 
46. Make couple friends. Eat dinner together, bond over movies and games. 
47. "How can I help? What do you need?" ...are some of the greatest questions you can ask your spouse.
48. Spend as much time together as you can. He's going to the hardware store? Join him! Hold his hand as you walk through the aisles. 
49. Clean the car together and get in a water fight. Fun! 
50. Always look for ways to help. Helping others is incredibly important. 
51. "I love you" everyday. Every. Single. Day.
52. Let your spouse become your life. It's the greatest feeling in the world. 
    
53. "Nice butt." {wink wink} Let your spouse feel loved and sexy.
54. Laughter is the best medicine, especially in marriage.
55. Yes, you may be married for forever, but never let a single day go by without being grateful for your marriage.

Happy One Year Anniversary to Christopher and Me!!

You guys, it's been a whole year since all this happened:

And what a crazy year it's been! I never imagined my first year of marriage would be so uneventful. Yep, you heard me right. My first year of marriage was not the greatest year of my life, but truth me told, I never wanted it to be. I'm a firm believer in the idea that love only grows, and I hope Chris and I continue to grow our love into the eternities. 

I am so insanely grateful that I married Chris one year ago. Chris is the greatest blessing in my life and I love him more than I ever thought I could love someone and everyday I find a way to love him more. He means the world to me, he saved my life, he makes me happier than I ever imagined, and I know he loves me and I'm so happy and grateful that he does. 

I don't care that our first year of marriage was uneventful. We're starting out our second year living in Texas and working full-time and making huge life decisions. I love my husband and I know our marriage will only get better and better as time goes on. But I'm so happy for this first of struggles and learning who we were, it will change us for the better. It already has made us a stronger couple and better people. I'm so grateful that this year was uneventful, because it means we have so much more to look forward to. 

Happy one year anniversary to my best friend in the whole world and the love of my life! I feel like I've known you forever, and I want to continue to get to know you through the eternities. 

I LOVE YOU CHRISTOPHER!! 

Lindsey Brogdon Photography

On Being a Supportive Wife

When I graduated high school I had my heart set on Utah State University, actually I knew I wanted to go there for years before that. And I held my head high and proudly said I was going to major in print journalism and write for a magazine like in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days .

During my first year of college my father, bless his heart, would email me news articles about how news is dying out (that sounds totally ironic). He would remind me that journalists don't get paid anything and my chances of actually writing what I want are incredibly slim.

Now, to say that it was my dad that led me to change my major is false. It's not his fault I have such a fickle mind and can't make and stick to decisions (or maybe it is, I do have his genes...). However I'd be lying if I said the emails he sent didn't have an influence on my decision. While I know both my parents would never discourage me from living my dreams, this was one instance that I didn't feel entirely supported. (But I still love my dad, and seriously he supports me in everything so I'm in no way trying to criticize or say he's a bad dad, because he's the greatest.)

As fate would have it, I would end up marrying a print journalism major and the emails that my father sent still sometimes pop into my head as Chris is talking about his dreams of being a journalist. But I never say a thing.

As Chris's wife it isn't my job to tell Chris that his dreams can't be achieved. It's my job to support him no matter what he does and help him to achieve all his goals. 

We are currently going through big changes in our marriage. Our one year anniversary is this Sunday, we both have full-time jobs (his being more than full-time, basically an all-the-time-except-sleep kind of job), we're figuring out our futures in college, we've moved to Texas and away from our families, and we're continually growing and maturing together. Things are crazy and I will support Chris through all of it!

Lately Chris has been discouraged with this new job. He's in sales and he doesn't get paid unless he sells, which after three days he hasn't yet. He's feeling upset and downhearted.

So every night I make him a nice meal to come home to (something I pretty much haven't done in our entire year of marriage (yep, I'm the worst)), I focus on him and his need before my own, and I tell him positive thoughts and let him know I'm rooting for him and I'll always support him.

It's not my job to tell him to do better. It's not my job to ask him what he's doing wrong. It's not my job to leave him feeling discouraged. No! That's all wrong! It's my job to make him feel good about himself and to think positively. It's my job to encourage him. It's my job to continually support him throughout all of our marriage.

I'm not saying we have a perfect marriage, I mean it's only been one year! What do we know about marriage? But if I've learned one thing in the last year, it's that if you support your spouse 100% in all their dreams, they will always support you back, even if your new goal is kind of crazy and risky. Love is about putting their needs before your own, that's what support means, giving all you have to help your spouses dreams come true.

I will always support Chris in his future endeavors and I know he will always support me. That's love. And I love Chris with all my heart. 

Amy Bennion Photography

My Broken Ring // My Proposal Story

So on the day exactly one month from my one year anniversary of being married to my amazing husband, I'm at work, as a janitor, and what happens... a diamond falls out of my ring and is lost forever.

And I am devastated!! 

I looked around for a while but it's a tiny diamond and I had just vacuumed a huge area, I didn't know exactly when it fell out or where it could be, and I just stood there staring at my ring and wanting to cry!

Yes, it may be a tiny diamond and not very noticable, but this is my ring! My most favorite possession in the world! Literally the only time I take this ring off is when I'm showering and then it immediately goes back on. I have been wearing this ring for a year and a half and I'm so incredibly in love with this ring and even the tiniest problem with it breaks my heart!

I told my husband and he, being the amazing hubby he is, immediately know just how sad I was and did everything he could to comfort me. We're going in to the jewelry store tomorrow to see how much it will be to get the diamond replaced, but we're incredibly poor right now so if it's too much we'll have to wait. But that just makes me so sad!

So here is the worst picture of my hand ever (it looks super swollen or fat and also red) that shows how the diamond fell out.

Oh my gosh, my hand looks awful! But you see that black spot on the left side? That's the missing diamond. Super small right? But it's still killing me! I'm just so depressed!! I want to cry!!!

So let's reminice back on the day I got this ring, back on November 3rd, 2012.

Picnic for my birthday.

Here's your present, some beautiful earring, why don't you try them on? 

But wait, what's underneath...

The proposal!! And one of my most favorite pictures in the world! Thank you Chris for having my family hide and take this picture!!! 

Jumping up for a hug because I was so excited! 

This was such a long, tight, wonderful hug.

And the first kiss picture we ever took together. 

I really like this picture too. 

And finally I got to put on my ring! 

So many pictures of my butt. Good thing I was wearing my favorite red pants. 

This is me in shock that my family was walking over. 

Such a happy moment!! 

Then Chris painted my nails because I wanted a picture of my hand and the ring but my nail polish was messed up so it needed to be fixed. I married a guy who will paint my nails, totally the right thing to do. 

The first real picture of my ring!! (And Chris's nail painting job, which isn't much better than mine, but really makes me want to paint my nails black again...)

Making fun of all the cheesy photos like this. My goodness I want to be that skinny again... 

A slightly pregnant looking photo, but really is just an engagement announcement photo. 

And then I started doing cartwheels out of excitement. 

Seriously I was amazing how warm it was that day, this is November in Utah! 

Jumping for joy! 

It's amazing to me that I love him more now than I did then, I didn't think I could love him any more. 

Chris examining the ring to make sure he did a good job. 

Finally, one from my engagement session with Amy Bennion Photography. (She did a fabulous job and was such a nice person to work with, and I won the engagement session so it was all free!!)

Well, one of the main reasons for all those pictures is because I honestly don't think I've shared the whole proposal story with pictures before... and I'm too lazy to go searching for it. So this post turned into my proposal story. 

Anyways, I'm very upset about my broken ring and I hope we can get it fixed soon and cheap. 

THANKS FOR READING!!! 

The Moments I Feel Like a Married Couple

Is it bad to say that I don't always feel like a married person? That my life hasn't completely changed from a few years ago? My life shifts from feeling married to feeling like a regular college student. But how can it not with the craziness my past nine months of marriage have brought me.

(I don't think I've ever shown this photo on my blog before, this is after the reception where we walked through a tunnel of sparklers (which scared me because I hate being close to an open flame) and I was leaning on Chris to walk because my feet hurt so badly. But I absolutely love this photo because we just look so happy (and we honestly were) and I loved my hair and that dress.) 

After the wedding on the honeymoon I felt married then. Because it was the first time in my life I was on a vacation without my parents (okay, I've been on ballroom and choir tour, but there were adults and I wasn't in charge of checking into hotels and such). We were in charge of the vacation and everyone at Disneyland was congratulating us on our marriage. We were happily in love and were happy to finally be married.

Moving in together for the first time was obviously a huge change. I felt married then. After eight months of living two hours from each other we were finally together 24/7 and I felt like we were a married couple then. We had our own apartment we shared a bed, we paid bills, we were a married couple.

But then I spent the whole summer job-less and stuck in the apartment, and I didn't feel married. I felt like a loser with no job living with my best friend. I didn't feel like we were a real married couple. I knew I was married, but it didn't feel any different than when I was living with roommates before.

On social outings with family (like our family Jackson Hole trip pictured above) I felt married (and super short). When we were around family I felt like we were a married couple. It became this way in any social situation. When we were out shopping or out with friends (ha, we don't ever hang out with friends, that's a lie) I felt married then. But when we returned home and sat around doing nothing, the feeling was lost.

When we are cleaning the house together, I feel like a married couple. In social situations, I feel like a married couple. When we go out and do something, I feel like a married couple. But when we're at home, I don't. And I feel it's because it doesn't feel like my home.

We've already lived in two different apartments and are moving again in two months. Things haven't settled yet. Nothing is set in stone. And I think that's why I struggle to feel like a married couple. We're approaching our one year anniversary in a few months and I've yet felt settled down as a married couple and it really bothers me. I love being married to Chris and I love him with all my heart, but I want those brief moments where I feel like a married couple to last forever.

I want to feel married all the time, and it's hard for me that I don't feel this way yet. Shouldn't it have happened? Why can't I feel it yet? I do love Chris and it has nothing to do with a lack of love, it's just a feeling that comes and goes, but I want it all the time, not just some of the time.

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day from us to you!! 

We hope your day is filled with excitement, happiness, and love! 

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!! 

My Favorite Fictional Couples

This post was originally put up on my blog last June, but I decided in honor of Valentines Day I would share it again. Enjoy! 

____________________________________________________

When I was in my 8th grade Spanish 1 class, we (as a class) once kept our teacher from teaching us any Spanish by having him rant about how the people that you are around influence you and you become like them (which explains my lack of knowledge on the Spanish language).

That story is only partially relevant to this post.

See, as I'm sure we all do, I have some of my favorite fictional couples from books and movies. And if the above statement is true, I would love to hang out with these couples, because their relationships are so strong and beautiful and I love the way that they love each other. I aspire to be like these couples (although my relationship, in my opinion, is better than all of these ones combined) because these couples work hard at their relationships and love each other no matter what.

So here is my list of ten my favorite fictional couples (with pictures and videos!!!) in no particular order. I know I'll be leaving out some good ones but I can always make another list later. (WARNING: May contain spoilers! Read at your own risk!)

Fergus and Elinor (from Pixar's Brave) 

Chris and I keep trying to watch this show but our DVD player is broken and really hates this movie (apparently) so we've never been able to get through it. I absolutely ADORE the relationship that Fergus and Elinor have. I don't care that this is a cartoon, but when Fergus sees that his wife may be sick, him immediately begins to worry. When he finds his wife gone, he really freaks out. But it's all out of love. You can see it and hear it and it's the cutest thing ever. I'm not the biggest fan of this movie, but they're relationship is so adorable. And Merida is so cute in the picture above!

Chandler and Monica (from Friends)

I talk about Friends way too much on this blog but it's only because it's my favorite!! I love that going through all the seasons, Chandler was always partial to Monica, even from the very beginning. And it's just so cute to me that it pays of for them. Everyone always want to marry their best friend (which I did) and Monica and Chandler absolutely did and it was just so perfect.

Ron and Hermione (from Harry Potter by JK Rowling)

I'm currently going through all the Harry Potter movies and it's so funny the relationship that Ron and Hermione have in the first movie/book. Their relationship is just cute. It's another friends to couple story, but theirs was kind of always there. Ron always felt something there and I'm pretty sure Hermione did too. And it's just the cutest relationship to read and especially to watch them as cute little 11 year old kids then turn into adults and have such a strong and meaningful relationship. Bravo JK Rowling. Bravo.

Shawn and Juliet (from Psych)

This is one of my favorite Shawn and Juliet scenes. I don't care that there have been a ton of adorable ones since this moment, especially since they ended up together (he is seriously the cutest boyfriend to her). This scene shows the beginning. Shows that he loved her, not like, love, from the moment that he met her. There is no cuter relationship than this one, because he always always loved her and never ever stopped.

Jim and Pam (from The Office)

Jenna Fischer and John Krasinski played these roles absolutely perfectly because their relationship is probably the best there ever was on television. It always felt so real that I often forget that they are actors and that they're really in relationships with other people. Jim and Pam are perfect in every way. This show let you see their relationship grow from a crush to married with kids and it was just so beautifully written (their relationship, not always the show) that their relationship really captivated you and made you happy.

Dill and Rosemary (from Easy A (yeah, I didn't know their names either until IMDB))